Labcaf, LLC

05/23/2026

It was a great honor to be the keynote speaker for the Victim Services of Renfrew County's "Breaking the Silence" Victims and Survivors of Crime Week conference. It is truly humbling to be sharing with so many incredible organizations who have a desire to learn more about supporting male victims of SA, DV, and trafficking. There were representatives from the Indigenous community, law enforcement communities, the military, mental health services, addiction treatment centers, and more!

I am grateful to Victim Services of Renfrew County's Executive Director Mary Leigh Elliott and her amazing team for putting together such an impactful event and for inviting me to be a part of it.

I've been fortunate to be a part of several events in Canada focusing on how to better serve male survivors of abuse, human trafficking, and other traumas. To see so much passion for supporting male survivors (like me) is overwhelming in a totally positive way. Historically there is very little support for male survivors, but the incredible people of Canada are stepping up to change that! I hope others will follow their example and learn to reach out to the hundreds of millions of male survivors living across Canada, the US, Mexico, and the rest of the world!

05/09/2026

I am excited to share that I'll be speaking at the Victim Services of Renfrew County's "I AM HERE: Supporting Boys and Men who have been Abused and Sexually Exploited" conference! There are so few resources for male victims of abuse and human trafficking across all of North America. But Mary Leigh Elliott, the Executive Director of Victim Services of Renfrew County is working to change that for her entire community with this incredible event.
I'm so grateful for the opportunity to share my story as a survivor and to provide training on how organizations, businesses, and communities can support the boys and men who have carried the secret pain of trauma for so much of their lives!
And I'm also excited that Joanna Fayad from White Ribbon will also be presenting a vital workshop to support early intervention and prevention of male victimization!

03/08/2025

Hello everyone!
This post is a little long, but if you are or support men or boys who were abused as children, it is worth the time to read it.
As you know (if you saw my post about it) I was just up in Ottawa Canada to do a talk about how agencies, survivor organizations, schools, churches and other groups can create an environment where male survivors of trafficking or childhood s*xual abuse feel safer about coming in to ask for some help -USUALLY, males who are victimized as children wait for 20 or more years before ever telling anyone about what happened to them (if they EVER tell anyone). Carrying the pain of that alone is terrible, but our culture and the generations that came before us made it next to impossible for a male to ask for help and NOT feel like a failure as a man.
I'm not ok with that and I've decided to do something about it. That's why I spoke at the Traffic Jam conference in Canada (it was about survivors of trafficking). It was the first time I gave a talk specifically on HOW to help male survivors, and I was excited that several agencies there approached me about what I was sharing and how they could reach me for more support in their organizations.
I'm sharing this for 3 reasons:
1) Our communities have very few, if any, resources for male survivors, and I want to help change that (so please feel free to share this post with any friends or family who are advocates, first responders, school / college faculty, or religious org leaders - I would be happy to share the same talk and guidance I shared in Canada).
2) A fellow survivor and I are creating a free resource to support male survivors and groups / organizations who want to help that VERY large population of boys and men (there's a lot more of them than you think). It is new and we are hoping to get some input from survivors and those who want to support them. So down below I've added the slide I used in my talk that includes a QR code to get to our resource - it is called The Ripple of Light Community. Please share it with the same people I mentioned above. BUT, it is also for family members of survivors as well! We're also having a virtual meet and greet on March 22 for those who have completed our 4 question survey (use the QR code below to get to the survey).
3) Even those who WANT to help usually don't know what needs to be different in order to make men feel ok talking about what happened to them. Many times what I've seen that is supposed to attract men and help them to come forward is actually having the OPPOSITE effect. Whether it is an organization, a friend, or maybe even a parent, wanting to help and being able to create a space where you CAN help that person you care about are 2 very different things. But that won't get fixed until more people understand the problems that are very specific to male survivors of trafficking, s*xual abuse, and other types of trauma.

Whether you are a survivor, have a loved one who is a survivor, serve survivors, or serve the public where so many survivors go unnoticed and un-helped, please help by supporting our virtual community - not with your dollars, but by taking part in it or at least sharing it with others.
Statistically, 1 in every 6 males (from toddlers to adult men) has had something tragic happen to them that they are too embarrassed to mention. If you count the number of boys and men you know and have known in the past, and divide that number by "6" you may be shocked that you've known so many male trauma survivors. There are several men and boys you see every week (and maybe every day) who have been abused but have never told anyone and have been hiding their pain because someone made them believe that if they are in pain and need help, then they must not be a "real man." No one deserves to live with that kind of pain and those kinds of false beliefs.
Thank you for reading this long post and for however you choose to support the unknown survivors in your community, your group of friends, or even your family.
If you think there's no way you know someone like that, my name is Cranford Blackmon. I'm a survivor of childhood trafficking and s*xual abuse. I didn't tell anyone until I was 53 years old. Now, you know me.

02/23/2025

What an incredible event this was!
First, it was an honor to be speaking to so many amazing individuals and organizations focused on stopping human trafficking and supporting trafficking survivors!
There are some groups who tend to be overlooked and underrepresented when talking about victims of human trafficking. I was so excited that those groups were the focus of this year's event.
I was honored to be one of 2 male survivors invited to share our stories. I also shared the reasons why so few male victims of trafficking, s*xual violence, and childhood s*xual abuse ever come forward to report what was done to them. Then I shared 5 steps organizations and agencies can take so that male survivors (like me) can find the courage to share what happened to them and finally receive some support for the pain they have been enduring and carrying for so long with no support and often no opportunity for any kind of healing to take place.
I can't tell you how excited I was that in attendance there were organizations like the Métis Nation of Ontario, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the National Indigenous Circle Against Family Violence, the Ottawa Police Service - Service de police d'Ottawa, the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, and Victim Services of Kingston and Frontenac.
I am grateful that I was able to meet them, share with them, and support them in their efforts to stop human trafficking and to create an environment where boys and men can be heard and supported without fear.
Thank you to A New Day Youth and Adult Services for creating such an incredible event, to the amazing speakers I worked with, and the incredible attendees who showed up to make their communities and the world a better place for EVERY victim of s*x trafficking, labor trafficking, s*x crimes, and childhood s*xual abuse!

.yas

02/15/2025

I am so excited to be going to Canada's capital to speak at the 3rd Annual Traffic Jam conference! This event is put on by A New Day Youth and Adult Services and will be focused this year on victim groups who are very often underrepresented in trafficking statistics and in support resources: males, indigenous communities, and the 2SLGBTQ+ communities.
I'll be sharing how organizations, law enforcement agencies, first responders, and even the military can create opportunities for male victims of all ages to come forward without shame or fear to get the care and support they need. I'm looking forward to sharing my own challenging experience of getting help AND hearing the other incredible speakers who will be there this year!

09/14/2024

Hi everyone! I just wanted to share something exciting- I am excited to announce that I will be a speaker at the upcoming International Human Trafficking & Social Justice Conference, hosted by The University of Toledo!

Date: September 20, 2024
Format: Virtual Conference: https://www.traffickingconference.com/

I am speaking in a powerful session titled "Into the Darkness: Unveiling Trafficking Stories of Child Sacrifice and Ritual Abuse."

This session will shed light on the horrible realities of trafficking, child sacrifice, ritual abuse, and the urgent need for awareness and action.

I hope you can join us as we come together to confront these critical issues head-on and explore ways to support and protect the most vulnerable among us. It will be a great opportunity for you to connect with professionals, advocates, and survivors from around the world to collectively work toward justice and healing. Together, we CAN make a difference in stopping this violence and helping survivors to heal!

08/17/2024

The 2024 International Conference on Violence against Men and Boys was incredible! What a great conference! I'm grateful that so many attended our session. And the fact that I got to share the stage with author and fellow survivor John-Michael Lander and my long-time friend (and award-winning researcher) Ena Lucia Mariaca Pacheco, well that just made it even more incredible!
It was an honor to be part of an event so full of compassionate people driven to make the world better for men and boys who were victimized as children. I am especially grateful because I am one of those survivors.
Hopefully sharing my story will help other survivors to know that they are not alone in what they experienced and that it is possible to find help and heal.
A BIG thank you to all the speakers, the attendees, and the amazing team that put the conference together!!!

11/12/2023

I know this is incredibly short notice, but I wanted to make sure you have the opportunity to see this, especially if you're a parent, care giver, educator, or child safety advocate. If you can't make the webinar, I sincerely hope you'll still read the book.]

As many of you know, I am focused on preventing violence against women and children. Well, I just read an incredible new book written for parents and teachers about keeping children safe. It is so well written and so practical, I hope every parent, teacher, and care giver get a copy and read it.
(I'm not an affiliate, I'm just so impressed by the content of this book that I have to share!)

The author, Kimberly King, is providing a free webinar about protecting children on 13 Nov from 1-2pm EST. I'm excited about it, and even though I'm telling you about it with very short notice, I hope you'll be able to attend, I'm sure it will be incredible.
Oh, and if I'm not mistaken, educators can get CE credit for attending!
Here's the link to register:
https://home.edweb.net/webinar/bookchats20231113/

Take care everyone!
Cranford

Learn how breaking down and taking the scare out of the topic of prevention early helps prepare all who care for and protect children.

05/22/2023

Your clothes don't make predators attack you. That would mean you can control their minds and actions with fashion!

04/02/2023

This is great. I love it!!